From Intentionally Annoying Robots to Chill-Sending AI Wearables

When Czech playwright Karel Capek first coined the term "robot" in his seminal 1920 science fiction work R.U.R., he could scarcely have imagined the July 2017 robots trends. While Capek's robots were undeniably more advanced than the robots of today, the writer was far from imagining just how wide-ranging modern robotics would span, with new developments coming through on what seems like a daily basis.

Most people think of robots as physical entities. However, it isn't such a stretch to consider artificial intelligence a form of robotics — AI conversation software are already referred to as chatbots, after all. Chatbots stand to make serious headway in July, with bots like Janis, a customer service training bot, and 'Poet on the Shore,' an artistic, poem-generating robot.

Nonetheless, hardware remains the cutting edge of robotics. The most recent bots show a tendency toward more and more specified tasks, such as the Tertill robot for weeding gardens and the 'Follow Me Cooler,' a GPS-enabled robotic beer cooler.